MOSCOW, July 16 - RAPSI. State prosecutors asked the court to sentence former Chief Military Physician Alexander Belevitin to 12 years in prison, the Office of the Chief Military Prosecutor reports on Monday.

The office asked the court to find Alexander Belevitin and his accomplice Alexei Nikitin guilty of accepting bribes worth 180,000 euro and abuse of office, which inflicted over 51 million rubles ($1.56 million) in damages on the state.

The office's representatives proposed sentencing Belevitin to 12 years in prison and fining him 1 million rubles ($30,600), and sentencing his accomplice Nikitin to 7.5 years in prison and fining him 300,000 rubles ($9,180).

Earlier, investigators maintained that Belevitin and Nikitin accepted 7 million rubles ($238,000) in bribes to act as intermediaries in signing medical equipment supply contracts for the Defense Ministry worth over 187 million rubles ($5.75 million).

It is estimated that the equipment was purchased at inflated prices and inflicted over 51 million rubles ($1.6 million) in losses on the government.